On Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham was halfway around the world, smiling alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, touring drone facilities in Kyiv and pushing for tougher sanctions against Russia.
By Saturday night, he was dead.
The sudden death of the 71-year-old Trump ally stunned Washington and sent shockwaves through Ukraine, where Graham had spent years cultivating a reputation as one of the nation’s fiercest champions in the U.S. Senate.
But it also sparked a wave of wild conspiracy theories about how he died—with some in the MAGA world insisting it was foul play by Russia or its ally, Iran.
“Deeply saddened by the news of the passing of United States Senator Lindsey Graham. Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and the values that make our world safer,” Zelensky said in a statement, noting that this was Graham’s 10th visit to Ukraine.
In the days before his death, Graham had been meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv as Russia’s full-scale invasion continued. There was nothing in the Senator’s public schedule or demeanor suggesting he was ill.
The high-profile Trump ally toured Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyfall, where he inspected long-range bomber drones that have been used against Russia.
Photographs released by Zelensky’s office also showed Graham smiling as he greeted the Ukrainian president and met with military and government leaders.
The senator even held a press conference in Ukraine, looking upbeat as he talked up the bipartisan bill he has been pushing for months, which is designed to impose heavy sanctions on Russia.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support. It means it’s going to become law,” he said at the press conference.
“So, when I get back to Washington, I’m going to go with Senator Blumenthal to the Republican and Democratic leaders to see if we can find time to move this Russian sanctions package that would give tools to President Trump to help end this war.”
Graham’s hawkish stance made him a frequent target of criticism from America First conservatives, who accused him of dragging the United States into overseas conflicts.
Those divisions resurfaced online after news of his death, with some Trump allies speculating that Russia may have been involved because of the Senator’s outspoken criticism of Vladimir Putin and his close ties to Ukraine.
“Did Russia just poison Lindsey Graham?” Laura Loomer wrote on X, reposting a clip of Graham’s press conference. “There seriously needs to be an investigation.”
“Graham was the loudest voice supporting strikes INSIDE Russia,” wrote conservative podcaster Clint Russell. “I can assure you Putin didn’t forget that.”
Graham was also a primary target of Iranian threats, having publicly advocated for targeted U.S. strikes on the Iranian regime.
At the funeral of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, signs displayed Trump, Graham and other Iran war hawks with red targets over their faces and text that read: “Sooner or later your heads will roll.”
“The IRGC threatened to kill Senator Lindsay Graham just five days ago,” said former Fox producer Kylie Jane Kremer, from the MAGA group Women for America First. “There needs to be a full investigation into his death.”
There is no evidence to support MAGA’s claims, and Graham’s office said he died following a “brief and sudden illness.”
The senator died on Saturday night, hours after he returned to Washington. Emergency services responded to a call around 8:30 p.m. for a person suffering chest pains at a Capitol Hill home owned by Graham, according to police scanner audio obtained by The Washington Post.
About 25 minutes later, emergency personnel said that CPR was in progress and that a man at the house was suffering from cardiac arrest.
CNN aired 911 dispatch audio related to the call from Graham’s house, where the words “cardiac arrest” can be heard, but the call contains no confirmation of the cause of the senator’s death.
Photographs NBC News reviewed showed paramedics carrying a person on a stretcher from Graham’s house to a waiting ambulance, while other images show him being transported to GW Hospital in Washington.
President Donald Trump paid a pre-dawn tribute to his regular golfing buddy soon after his death.
“Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead!,” Trump said. “He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!! DETAILS AND ARRANGEMENTS TO FOLLOW. So sad! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
